Today, on the anniversary of Searcy W.’s passing, Recovery Speakers is honored to share one of his final talks.

Recorded at the Houston Roundup in Houston, Texas, on November 11, 2002, this 52-minute recording captures Searcy R. Whaley at 92 years old, looking back across more than half a century in Alcoholics Anonymous. The recording has been preserved in multiple recovery-audio archives and is identified by recovery-history sources as one of Searcy’s last talks.

Less than a year later, on September 30, 2003, Searcy died in Dallas at age 93 after 57 years as an active member of A.A. Dallas

In this remarkable late-life recording, Searcy speaks about the principles he believed had allowed Alcoholics Anonymous to survive and grow:
A.A.’s primary purpose
The importance of the Twelve Traditions
Trusting God, cleaning house, and helping others
His experiences with Bill W. and early A.A.
Ebby T. and the responsibility of one alcoholic helping another
Early efforts to help alcoholics in Texas
The spiritual foundation of recovery
Why every individual member matters
The responsibility of younger generations to carry the message forward

At one point, Searcy tells the room:
“You are the only one that can help somebody and save their life.”

That idea runs throughout the recording.

Searcy had entered A.A. in 1946. In 1948, at Bill Wilson’s urging, he attended the Yale School on Alcohol Studies. His obituary records that he subsequently worked with pioneering alcoholism researcher E. M. Jellinek as a field representative for the Yale Institute of Alcohol Studies in the Southwest at Texas Christian University, speaking to churches and schools about alcoholism and the possibility of recovery.

Beginning in 1949, Searcy helped establish facilities for alcoholics in Lubbock, Dallas, Houston, and Carlsbad, New Mexico, where people could be medically stabilized and introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous.

His connection to A.A. history also extended to Ebby Thacher, the man who carried the Oxford Group message to Bill Wilson. Recovery Speakers’ historical material records that when Bill later wanted Ebby to have another opportunity for sobriety, Searcy helped him in Texas; Ebby subsequently experienced a lengthy period of sobriety.

But this Houston talk is not simply a history lesson.
Searcy repeatedly brings the history back to the person sitting in the room today.

He challenges newer and younger members not to underestimate their importance and reminds them that eventually the responsibility for carrying the message will be theirs.

Near the end, he returns to the simple formulation associated with him throughout his life:

“Trust God, clean house, and help others.”

Searcy died on September 30, 2003. His obituary remembered that same phrase as his motto — with Searcy’s characteristic addition:
“…and it doesn’t have to be done in that order!”

SEARCY W. — HOUSTON ROUNDUP
Houston, Texas
November 11, 2002
One of his final talks

In memory of:
Searcy R. Whaley
March 30, 1910 – September 30, 2003

Today, 23 years after his passing, the room is gone.

The recording remains.

And Searcy can still carry the message.

Recovery Speakers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to preserving the voices, recordings, documents, and history of recovery for today and future generations.

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